How Under Armour accelerates and sustains omnichannel start-up success with performance management

In the last decade, retail and distribution operations have experienced the ever-evolving omnichannel demand of their customers. For many supply chain organisations, solutions for the omnichannel shift were implemented in existing warehouse space. By taking to the oars, the marketplace has been able to meet their customers’ omnichannel demand, but for how long? In many cases, operations have been retrofit beyond reasonable efficiency and without room for scale. Under Armour’s Baltimore distribution house experienced the same. The strategy for a distribution house start-up, designed with omnichannel in mind, became the clear path forward. Much like the omnichannel shift, facility start-ups have many unique challenges. As Under Armour prepared to open the doors of the omnichannel distribution house (ODH), a broader start-up strategy emerged. The distribution team elected to implement a holistic performance management programme, including leadership training, process improvements, engineered labour standards and labour management software tools. Performance management, while not commonly implemented at the beginning of a facility life cycle, would create a continuous improvement culture for the ODH team, establishing resilience to change and motivation to overcome obstacles common with warehouse start-ups. In this paper, we will share how Under Armour utilised this performance management strategy to overcome human and operational start-up challenges and accelerate success in their ODH.